Charles Y. Okyere holds a Doctor of Agricultural Sciences (Dr. Agr.) degree from the University of Bonn, Germany. He had doctoral (Ph.D.) studies at the Department of Economic and Technological Change, Center for Development Research (ZEF). His doctorate dissertation which was submitted to the Faculty of Agriculture is entitled “Water Quality in Multipurpose Water Systems, Sanitation, Hygiene and Health Outcomes in Ghana”. He is a Lecturer at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Ghana, Legon. He currently teaches Fisheries Economics and co-teaches Econometrics and Project Analysis at the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness and Department of Marine and Fisheries Sciences. In September 2017, he was selected as part of ten fellows for the inaugural EIB-GDN Program in Applied Development Finance. As part of the fellowship program, he worked with Arianna Legovini (Manager, Development Impact Evaluation, The World Bank) and Alexandros Sarris (Professor of Economics, University of Athens) as expert advisors. His task was to evaluate the effects of Internet services on educational institutions in Kenya. In addition, he has work experience from three countries: Ghana, Germany, and Kenya. In May 2013, he successfully completed 14.73x: The Challenges of Global Poverty, an online learning initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) through edX. Charles Y. Okyere holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ghana and worked with ISSER from February 2012 to September 2012 as a Research Assistant on Ghana Social Opportunities Project (GSOP) and Feed the Future Population-Based Survey (FtF PBS). The main activities for these two projects included training data enumerators, conducting a reconnaissance survey, monitoring data collection exercises, and supervising data entry, data analysis, and report writing. Between 2009 and 2012, Charles Y. Okyere worked for research organizations (including International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and ACDI/VOCA) on a part-time basis on data collection and entry. In 2007, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree (second class honors (upper division)) in Agriculture Technology (Agricultural Economics and Extension option) from the University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana.

Robert Darko Osei is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER), University of Ghana, Legon, and the Vice Dean for the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Ghana. Robert has published widely in edited volumes and top international journals. His main areas of research include evaluative poverty and rural research, macro and micro implications of fiscal policies, aid effectiveness and other economic development policy concerns. He is currently involved in several research projects in Ghana, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. Robert is Married with 3 children.

Takyiwaa Manuh is Ghanaian academic and author. She is an Emerita Professor of the University of Ghana, and until her retirement in May 2017, she served as the Director of the Social Development Policy Division, of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), located in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. She was also the Director of the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana from 2002 to 2009.She is a fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Marie Rarieya is a science and technology studies scholar specializing in areas of sustainable development, education and training, capacity building and institutional strengthening. She has over 20 years’ experience working on sustainable development issues in Africa at four different institutions, namely, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), UNU-IAS, the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), both based in Nairobi, Kenya. Rarieya, has contributed to the development of a new conceptual framework termed-‘agrocomplexity’-for understating sustainable development challenges and its complexities. She has excellent leadership, decision-making, management and communication skills. Rarieya seeks to contribute to agricultural research for development, seeking to craft policy that contributes to poverty reduction through capacity building strategies focusing on reframing the existing development model and recognizing the different barriers women and girls face in every development challenge. Passionate about agricultural transformation, individual transformation and contribution toward bringing change in the world. Why not change the world? Rarieya combines analytical writing and communication skills, academic expertise and professional skills, which focuses on theory and practice of sustainable development in the context of mainstreaming gender issues in developing countries

Ventura Fernando Mufume is a Monitoring & Evaluation expert with experience from grassroots project planning, implementation, and oversight to strategic policy advisory. Past and current employers include: the World Bank Group, Millennium Challenge Account (MCA-Mozambique), UNDP, Food for the Hungry (FH) et al. He is knowledgeable of Mozambique’s development context and management for results, embedded in a holistic personal culture of accountability and transparency I carved from my leadership, education, and Christian principles hence my commitment to uplifting the underprivileged and to challenging all sorts of injustice. Ventura is a development worker who is currently working as an associate consultant with the International Centre for Evaluation.

Dr. Kwame Yeboah is a fixed-term assistant professor of International Development and a member of the Food Security Group. He joined the department in December 2014 under the Guiding Investments in Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in Africa – GISAIA grant. Dr. Yeboah has expertise in multiple areas of social policy, including agricultural and food system transformation, natural resource management, and youth livelihood issues in Africa. For the past decade, he has provided critical analysis to inform a range of social policies both in the US and in Africa. Notably, his research informed The MasterCard Foundation’s strategies promoting youth employment in Africa’s agri-food system; the State of Michigan’s effort to reduce non-point source pollution in the Great Lakes; and strategic change initiatives advancing solid waste recycling and energy conservation at Michigan State University. More recently, he served as the lead author for the 2018 Global Food Security Report commissioned by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs to advise the US Government’s strategies addressing youth employment challenges in developing countries. His research was also featured in the 2016 Africa’s Agriculture Status Report, a flagship report of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. In 2012, he was recognized as a Milton H. Steinmueller scholar of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and a George and Nancy Axinn fellow of International Development. Dr. Yeboah holds a Masters and Ph.D. in Environmental Policy and International Development, with specializations in Environment and Resource Economics from Michigan State University, USA and a Bachelor’s in Natural Resource Management from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, West Africa. He was also a John M. Gunn Exchange Scholar at Washington and Lee University, Virginia.

Bamire Adebayo Simeon, a native of Oyan in Odo-Otin Local Government Area of Osun State, Nigeria, was born in 1959. He commenced his elementary education at Datus Nursery/Primary Preparatory School, Accra, Ghana and completed it at St. Clares’ Nursery and Primary School, Osogbo. He attended St. Charles’ Grammar School, Osogbo, from 1972 to 1976. Professor Bamire was admitted into the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife), where he studied Agricultural Economics and was awarded a Bachelor of Agriculture (B.Agric.) degree in 1985. He also obtained his M.Phil. and PhD degrees from the university in 1992 and 1999, respectively. His PhD programme attracted sponsorship from the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) in 1997 and the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in 1998. His PhD thesis won him the “National Universities Postgraduate Theses Award” in 2001. Prof. Bamire joined the Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife as Assistant Lecturer in 1992 and rose to the post of Professor in 2008. He has taught courses at both the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and successfully supervised undergraduate projects and postgraduate theses at the Master and PhD levels within and outside Nigeria. He has also assessed colleagues for promotion to the Professorial cadre and served as an External Examiner at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels within and outside of the country. He has over 100 research-based publications in reputable local and international outlets, comprising contributions to books, scientific journals, refereed conference proceedings, technical reports, monographs, and delivered the University’s 315th Inaugural Lecture. No doubt, Professor Bamire comes prepared for the position, having been exposed to intense leadership and managerial training over the years in the course of his academic career in the university. He was a Visiting Scientist at IITA, Ibadan, in 2004; Vice-Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, Obafemi Awolowo University (2007-2009); Head, Department of Agricultural Economics (2011-2012) and Dean, Faculty of Agriculture (2013-2015). In his capacity as Dean, he embarked on and completed laudable developmental projects in the faculty through donations from his social capital network, Alumni, and friends of the faculty. By virtue of his position as the Immediate Past Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), he was a member of the Governing Council for four years (2017-2021) and served as Chairman of some Committees and Boards in the university. Professor Bamire has been exposed to research training opportunities early in his career through various training workshops organized by CODESRIA, IITA, AERC, and OAU. The experiences gained made it easy for him to guide colleagues and students in writing winning research proposals and establish important networks nationally and internationally. He has personally attracted research grants from notable international funding agencies into OAU as Principal Investigator and collaborated in research activities with other scientists within and outside the university. He led a baseline study sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), USA. This was made possible through his long-time collaboration with scientists at IITA; ILRI/DfID; HarvestPlus/IFPRI (Washington, DC., USA); International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico; Makerere University (Uganda); United Nations University Institute of Natural Resources (UNU-INRA), Accra, Ghana; United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki, Finland; African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), Nairobi, Kenya; and African University for Cooperative Development (AUCD), Cotonou, Benin Republic; among others. Professor Bamire has attended different national and international conferences and workshops relating to biodiversity and sustainable agricultural development and has participated in collaborative studies involving researchers from various disciplines on sustainable agricultural production. He has participated in and written different technical reports that relate to practical field experiences in agricultural business and development in Nigeria and other developing nations. Prof. Bamire is a Fellow of international organisations such as CODESRIA, IITA, Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD), and an Associate Senior Research Fellow of the International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED). He has attended many conferences within and outside Nigeria and is a member of various professional associations. He has also received various awards and honours. Prof. Bamire is computer literate with excellent knowledge of the application of statistical and econometric tools. He has participated and still participates as Principal Investigator in different on-farm researches and as Resource Person in training programmes that have provided long-term interactions with farmers and non-farmers in their communities and business concerns. Prof. Bamire has proven to be consistently diligent, committed, disciplined, resourceful, reliable, and has a good team spirit. Above all, he is God-fearing. He has good insight and experience of best business practices that could contribute immensely to system development, having served in different committees and assisted tremendously in promoting academic and research programmes in his department, faculty, and the university as a whole. He is happily married to Dr. (Mrs.) Felicia Bosede Bamire and together are blessed with children.